


Cargument

by damalur



Category: Broadchurch
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 10:05:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13051806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/damalur/pseuds/damalur
Summary: Hardy, Miller, the not-so-open road, and an abundance of opinions.





	Cargument

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sprl1199](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sprl1199/gifts).



It was a Tuesday, and Hardy was being difficult again. On the other hand — Christ, she wasn't sure he'd ever been easy in his life, but she was NOT in the mood to hear about it. He started moaning as soon as they pulled onto the road, all "What in God's name?" and "Why aren't we moving?"

"I've told you three times already," Ellie said. "Do you really not remember? The last time was ten minutes ago, you looked me right in the eye — "

"Told me what?" 

"Are you serious? They're doing repairs, they've had to take it down to one lane, it's been in the papers for a week — "

Hardy made one of those indescribably Scottish noises that sounded like he was growling through a mouthful of marbles. "And I suppose all of these other people just had to drive to Poole on a Tuesday morning?" 

"Well, I don't know, maybe they did! I asked if you wanted to go 'round, and you said — " Actually, come to think of it, what _had_ he said? Something about the DI they were supposed to be meeting. "Anyway, there's no turning back now, we're stuck here until we can make it through."

"Miller, if you'd just — "

"No," Ellie said. "No, I am not in the mood to hear it this morning, we'll just have to wait it out and that's final." She didn't have to look at Hardy to know he was making a face. That was Hardy all over; he was always, always making _some_ kind of face, all that mobility folding into ferociously grouchy lines that absolutely did not under any circumstances inspire fondness.

"Oh for God's sake," she said, and sighed explosively. "All right, what's the problem?" 

The white van in front of them crept forward by half an inch. "Miller, shouldn't you — "

"I am not going to bother moving for half an inch of progress, and come on, out with it."

"Out with what?"

"There's obviously something bothering you, if you're going to sit there in the passenger seat like a stormcloud dripping all over you might as well just get it out."

"I'm not dripping — see, that's your problem, always assuming that — "

"Oh, my problem? _My_ problem? Because if we're going to talk about assumptions — "

"Fine!" he exploded. "Fine, Miller! I surrender!"

"Good!" she shouted back. "Then what is it!"

"It's Daisy," he said, and like that all the fight went out of him. He wasn't nearly as bad as he'd been back when he'd been dying of a broken heart, when he'd been constantly on the verge of snapping like a guitar string wound too tightly, but sometimes she still felt that exhausted tension settle over him. 

"Oh no, is she having trouble with the kids at school again?"

"I don't bloody well know," he admitted, and then he was quiet for a bit as they crept along — probably overthinking it, because Hardy overthought everything. Not that Ellie was much better, always banging on his door in the middle of the night because she'd taken a walk along the cliffs to clear her head and ended up with ten questions that immediately required Hardy's insight, even if he was sleeping. And then Hardy said, "She hasn't said a word about it."

"Well have you tried asking?" She had the feeling he hadn't. 

"Of course I have, Miller, what do you take me for — oh, don't give me that look, I'm not going to storm off to threaten her classmates again."

"Want me to talk to Beth? I could see if Chloe's dropped any hints, they're closer than ever. Course, I'm not sure I'm one to be giving advice. Tom's in one of his moods again."

"He isn't…"

"Isn't what — oh, the pornography? No, not that I can tell, I've been checking his mobile." Someone a couple of car lengths ahead must've gotten fed up, because they laid into their horn. "But it getting close to the anniversary of… well, you know."

"Danny Latimer."

"Right. I've been trying to think of something I can do for him, he's still having a hard time without Joe even if he doesn't want me to know he is." Honestly, it was a hard time of year for all of them, except for Fred, who was still too young to know better, and her dad, and he was… God only knew, but she was growing sick of having to rely on him for help with the boys. "It's this job, you know," she added. Three years ago, even two years, she wouldn't have felt comfortable admitting as much to Hardy, but now she had little doubt he harbored similar thoughts. "Sometimes I think I should give it up. Work somewhere that doesn't have all of this… _baggage."_

"Ah, Miller," he said, "you'd hate it. You wouldn't be yourself without it."

"What, are you saying I'm married to my job?" Now that was a loaded way to put it. "Oh God, I can't believe I said that. On the other hand, you're worse than I am, which doesn't really make me feel better now that I'm saying it. Is that really how I am?"

"DS Miller, flapping along the cliffside in the hide of that bright orange creature she killed and skinned," Hardy drawled. 

"Did you just make a joke?"

"No," said Hardy.

"You did! Oh, I'm so proud, it's like watching a baby learn to walk," she teased. "That makes what, three now?"

Hardy scowled and said, "Eyes on the road."

"Now you've got to be joking. We've barely made it half a mile."

"Trust me, Miller, I'm well aware."

"I do, you know," Ellie said. "It's just, after Joe… well, you were there for that whole sorry mess, and then you kept on being there, and even when you went away, you came back again. I thought you were a bastard at first — "

"Oh, thanks."

"Might still think that sometimes, if I'm being honest," Ellie fired back. "But it's nice, you being there. Fighting crime together. That makes us sound like superheroes out of one of those movies Tom likes, but you know what I mean."

There was a pause that hung in the air a little too long, and then, wonder of wonders, Hardy responded. "I might," he said.

Ellie grinned. "Does that make us friends? Hangin' out, talking about parenting — "

"Colleagues," Hardy said firmly.

"Partners," Ellie corrected. "That reminds me, I got the forensics back on the robbery at the Martins'."

"Anything conclusive?"

"Nah, not really. Oh, look at us, that was almost — " She checked the clock. "Five minutes of talking about something other than work."

"It was not," said Hardy, and Ellie rolled her eyes at him, and when he scowled, she said, "Oh yes it was — "

And the road was bright and crowded —

And there were worse things in the world than doing a meaningful job with a person you trusted utterly at your back, weren't there? Ellie had seen some of those worse things; but they kept those things at bay, she and Hardy. It wasn't nothing, that.


End file.
